By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly is 1 of Meryl Streep’s most iconic characters and it should perhaps be no surprise that this sequel is proving even more popular than its original.

• Read on for reasons including how the success of this sequel means this may not be the last we see of this saga

It’s only been out 6 weeks but its profits ($565 million) already dwarf those of the 2006 original ($285 million) which saw Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs aspiring journalist get a job at fashion magazine Runway for an impossible-to-please boss.

Prada 2 is set 2 decades later and sees award-winning journalist Andy recruited by those above Priestly to turn around the magazine’s fortunes as it copes with online challenges, downsizing and a sweatshop scandal.

A key advertiser is Dior and Emily Blunt’s former Runway staffer Emily Charlton returns as a Dior employee keen to leverage the controversy around the sweatshop scandal to her own ends.

In fact the plot is the least interesting thing about Prada 2 and it’s great just getting the band back together and in particular seeing how Priestly’s coping 20 years later in a working world more HR policed than when we last encountered her.

Great work has been done by The Devil Wears Prada musical in keeping interest in the brand alive co-written by Elton John and still going strong at the Dominion Theatre more than 18 months after debuting.

There’s also an over-the-top cameo from Lady Gaga to look forward to here as well as some new songs which give life to the film’s third act trip from New York to the runways of Milan.

We certainly weren’t expecting Kenneth Branagh (King Lear, Wyndham’s Theatre) to pop up as Priestly’s husband but he’s not given enough to do to detract from the central story.

Prada 2 shows just what you can do when following up a hit after quite such a gap and, while the story doesn’t feel vital, the groundwork has already been laid by the characters and the situation they find themselves in does feel very now.

‘That’s all’ may be 1 of Priestly’s iconic utterances but we think the success of this sequel means this may not be the last we see of this saga.

Not least because we’re making a return visit to the musical before the month’s out. Still in fashion.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy The Devil Wears Prada 2
• Have you seen The Devil Wears Prada before and what did you think of this? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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